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Compressor advice

01-27-2013, 02:11 PM

I'm looking at getting rid of my multi-FX RP1000 and going back to more conventional pedals. One effect I use a lot is a compressor but I'm a bit stuck on what to look for. I use it on both the clean and dirty channels to liven clean sounds and thicken and sustain my tone on the dirty channel when I can be using quite a bit of gain. I think for the way I use it I'd need a Compressor with a good amount of headroom. Anyway, my research so far indicates that these would all be decent buys:

Comment

I'm afraid they don't appear to be as readily available here in the UK so I suspect it will have to be one of those listed above. There's a good deal at the moment on the Seymour Duncan as it's old stock so it wouldn't work out that much more than something like the Boss or MXR pedals. As nobody has really expressed an opinion on any of these yet I'm a bit in the dark but I get the impression that the Black Finger, Tone Press and Double Back are the best in terms of quality while the others are very good within their price bracket. Please bear in mind that most of my use of the compressor will be on a distorted signal to give it thickness and sustain both on chords and single notes. I'm not sure if that makes a difference for which one's best.

Comment

I can only talk about the entry level CS-3, which sort of works okay as a clean boost and if you put it in front of an overdrive it gives a lot of nice sustained gain, plus some harmonics if you are lucky. It's a bit noisy with single coils if the sustain is turned up. Okay pedal though. If you push it too much it clips, and that is a pisser.

Maybe look for a CS-2 instead and I agree about the Keeley compressor - good stuff.